“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.” – Mark Twain

Today was closing day for my son and his wife on their first home. It’s a starter home that will require some fixing up before they will be able to move in, but once we can get that done it will be a darling place for them to call home for their growing family. The best part about it is the fact that it’s just a few minutes away from my house which means I’ll get to see my grandbaby a whole lot more – YAY! And with grandbaby #2 coming this summer the timing is perfect to get them settled into their home. I’m not excited about how much work it is going to be, but I’m excited for them to live closer.

As my husband and I were meeting with a slew of various workers that were working up bids to help get the house ready, we walked up the stairs from the basement to see a black cat come running across the room toward the front door. It scared the bajeebees out of both of us and my husband jumped forward to try and grab it or chase it out the door.  As the cat ran out the door I couldn’t help but think of the quote at the start of my blog by Mark Twain. Here we were, taking on everything that will need to get done on this house in a short timeframe when we already have a million other things we both have on our plates to get done…are we ever going to learn our lesson and stop taking so much on?!

Holding the proverbial cat by the tail is definitely teaching us some lessons we likely couldn’t learn any other way…but I’ll still be extremely relieved when I get to a point where I don’t have to get scratched quite so much in order to learn how to balance my life better. #stilltrying

~Amy Rees Anderson